On Victory Day: PEOPLETALK editors on the military exploits of their grandparents

Victory Day is an important, respectful and incredibly touching holiday that interests absolutely everyone. To mark the 78th anniversary of the victory, The Fashion Vibes editors and staff chatted with loved ones and recorded family stories from the Second World War. We are proud of the veterans they went to for a peaceful sky above our heads and their heroism.

Svetlana Mikhailova, CEO

“My grandmother was only 19 when the war started, and my aunt was just one and a half years old. My grandmother was immediately sent to ditch, and my aunt was sent to a nursery in Courage Square. In 1941, my great-grandfather was working at the port, but there was no transportation and he walked home. When he returned home he brought firewood and died of exhaustion right on the threshold. And my grandfather was evacuated to Moscow and was told to take his aunt and grandmother with him. But my grandmother could not leave everything, so they stayed in Leningrad. That same winter, he was sent to build his life path on Lake Ladoga. Another aunt said that when the alarm sounded, all the children were put in the trenches so that the bomb would not explode. They lived in a wooden house until 1943, after which it was dismantled to heat the furnace. And they moved to a small room on Kolomenskaya street. There, my aunt was assigned to a kindergarten, so she described how an alarm was announced while walking down the street with a group. Then the bomb hit the corner house of the kindergarten and began to fall on them. The teacher ran into a basement and the aunt behind him says it saved him.

Grigory Cherkasov, head of special projects

“At the end of 1941, my great-grandfather Zhirkov Ivan Mikhailovich was drafted into the Red Army, served as a gunner in the 157th rifle regiment, was badly wounded and died on July 25, 1942. And great-grandmother Zhirkova Praskovya Sergeevna went to work at the “Precision Meter” factory. Molotov” was completely retrained for the defense industry. After the end of the war, he was awarded a medal “For valiant and selfless work during the Second World War”. Another great-grandfather, Ivan Gavrilovich Cherkasov, went to the front at the very beginning of the war, and great-grandmother Ekaterina Andreevna Cherkasova went to the front at the very beginning of the war. He stayed in Kharkov.My grandfather lived through the whole war, was wounded and even reached Berlin.After the war he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Cristina Constantinou, Senior Fashion Editor

“My great-grandfather Ananiev Grigory Matveyevich was a tanker, he led a tank platoon. According to the documents, it has been listed as missing for several years. Grandmother said that she participated in the Battle of Kursk. There was a story that his tank (T-34) stopped during the war. Then a German tanker (light tank) came and wanted to lure it to himself as a trophy, but at that moment the tank started up and the grandfather dragged the German “car” next to him. He was captured after the Battle of Kursk, and before that he buried his shoulder straps, because the Germans immediately shot the officers. In the same 1943, he was sent to the Hammelburg concentration camp in Germany, where he remained until 1945.

Madina Ibragimova, gossip editor

“My great-grandfather went to fight in Ukraine in 1942, where he met my great-grandmother. At that time he was just a boy (13 years old), but despite this, he was already a member of a partisan group. I know very little about those years, my grandmother didn’t like to talk about it, but I still remember the cigarette burns and eyelash marks the Nazis left on her. Later, when it was time for my grandfather to return to his hometown (Uzbekistan), he married him and took him with him. And soon they had 9 children! And they adopted 2 more children. Unfortunately they did not live long together, great-grandfather passed away a few years after the end of the war. She burned to death in the car.